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It’s a show about nothing. Or rather, it’s a Sitcom where they take mundane things in everyday life and obsess over them comedically. Some people find it does

It’s a show about nothing. Or rather, it’s a Sitcom where they take mundane things in everyday life and obsess over them comedically. Some people find it doesn’t withstand the test of time and if you never saw it in the 90/00s you might not really care for it.

chungy 4y ago
Besides being adopted by the marketing for the show, "show about nothing" was never really accurate. It was lifted from when George pitched the show-in-a-show (season 4's running plot). Especially in the earlier seasons, what Seinfeld is about should be apparent: There's a little standup skit performed by Jerry Seinfeld, with the usual ridiculous circumstances you'd hear in a standup skit. The episode that follows shows exactly how Jerry "came up with" the idea for the standup the episode opened with. Instead of "about nothing," Seinfeld was really about answering the question people often ask: "How did you come up with that?" Of course, as the show developed and real-life inspirations started to be exhausted, the show adopted more and more outlandish sitcom ideas that weren't rooted in the real-life experiences of the writers. The standup openings were abandoned as well.
- canadiantim 4y ago
  As a longtime fan of Seinfeld I found that very insightful and accurate. Thanks
- Waterluvian 4y ago
  I think some misinterpret “about nothing” too literally. The entire show is about the minutiae of life, or to connect the dots more clearly, about “nothing important.” Indeed, the show gets a bit “meta” when it makes a copy of itself inside itself and is also about nothing.
mellosouls 4y ago
It’s a show about nothing. It's a classic comedy of manners, a style as old as the hills. The "show about nothing" spiel with the implied "which is completely original and has never been done before" was true in it's demarcation from traditional sitcoms based around forced scenarios but always complete rubbish with the latter intention and a brilliant marketing line.
DonHopkins 4y ago
The act of people who weren't around to watch Seinfeld when it originally aired complaining that it's just so overdone, unfunny, unoriginal, tired, cliched, or just like other shows, is called the "Seinfeld is Unfunny" trope. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunn... >"I don't know what the big deal with Hamlet is. It's just one famous saying after another, strung together by a moldy old plot." — Old Joke >There are certain shows that you can safely assume most people have seen. These shows were considered fantastic when they first aired. Now, however, these shows have a Hype Backlash curse on them. Whenever we watch them, we'll cry, "That is so old" or "That is so overdone". >The sad irony? It wasn't old or overdone when they did it, because they were the first ones to do it. But the things it created were so brilliant and popular, they became woven into the fabric of that show's genre. They ended up being taken for granted, copied and endlessly repeated. Although they often began by saying something new, they in turn became the new status quo. It's basically the inverse of a Grandfather Clause taken to a trope level: rather than being able to get away with something that is seen as overdone or out of style simply because it was the one that started it, people will unfairly disregard it because it got lost amidst its sea of imitations even though it paved the way for all those imitators. That is, a work retroactively becomes a Cliché Storm. >There may be good reason for this. Whoever is first to do something isn't likely to be the best at it, simply because everyone that comes after is building on their predecessors' work. >Named after Seinfeld, which many people won't watch any more because everything about it has been copied. note Most likely will result in Fan Haters and accusations of Rule Abiding Rebels. This can also occur in countries that get the shows years after they originally come out. >When someone attempts to make "Seinfeld" funny again in this time and age, see Reconstruction. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Reconstruction https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Reconstruction Not to be confused with the act of thinking an old in-joke referencing a sub-culture was originally from that show (yada, yada, yada), which is called the "Seinfeld Effect" or the modern internet-meme related "Family Guy Effect". https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/seinfeld-effect https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/seinfeld-effect https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/family-guy-effect https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/family-guy-effect
- Waterluvian 4y ago
  Thanks for sharing. I had no idea there was a term for it. As I reflect, I can see that with a lot of shows I thought were amazing. Humour evolves in such a fascinating way that a killer joke, even if it’s not context specific to an era, can stop being funny. I showed my wife a bunch of flash videos from my teenage years. She just stared and I slowly came to realize: they’re just not funny anymore. I remember thinking they were such a novel concept and the humour was trying something very new. But I guess what was new and exciting then is so socially normal now that it doesn’t trigger the funny response.

chungy 4y ago

Besides being adopted by the marketing for the show, "show about nothing" was never really accurate. It was lifted from when George pitched the show-in-a-show (season 4's running plot). Especially in the earlier seasons, what Seinfeld is about should be apparent: There's a little standup skit performed by Jerry Seinfeld, with the usual ridiculous circumstances you'd hear in a standup skit. The episode that follows shows exactly how Jerry "came up with" the idea for the standup the episode opened with. Instead of "about nothing," Seinfeld was really about answering the question people often ask: "How did you come up with that?" Of course, as the show developed and real-life inspirations started to be exhausted, the show adopted more and more outlandish sitcom ideas that weren't rooted in the real-life experiences of the writers. The standup openings were abandoned as well.

canadiantim 4y ago
As a longtime fan of Seinfeld I found that very insightful and accurate. Thanks
Waterluvian 4y ago
I think some misinterpret “about nothing” too literally. The entire show is about the minutiae of life, or to connect the dots more clearly, about “nothing important.” Indeed, the show gets a bit “meta” when it makes a copy of itself inside itself and is also about nothing.

mellosouls 4y ago

It’s a show about nothing. It's a classic comedy of manners, a style as old as the hills. The "show about nothing" spiel with the implied "which is completely original and has never been done before" was true in it's demarcation from traditional sitcoms based around forced scenarios but always complete rubbish with the latter intention and a brilliant marketing line.

DonHopkins 4y ago

The act of people who weren't around to watch Seinfeld when it originally aired complaining that it's just so overdone, unfunny, unoriginal, tired, cliched, or just like other shows, is called the "Seinfeld is Unfunny" trope. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunny https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunn... >"I don't know what the big deal with Hamlet is. It's just one famous saying after another, strung together by a moldy old plot." — Old Joke >There are certain shows that you can safely assume most people have seen. These shows were considered fantastic when they first aired. Now, however, these shows have a Hype Backlash curse on them. Whenever we watch them, we'll cry, "That is so old" or "That is so overdone". >The sad irony? It wasn't old or overdone when they did it, because they were the first ones to do it. But the things it created were so brilliant and popular, they became woven into the fabric of that show's genre. They ended up being taken for granted, copied and endlessly repeated. Although they often began by saying something new, they in turn became the new status quo. It's basically the inverse of a Grandfather Clause taken to a trope level: rather than being able to get away with something that is seen as overdone or out of style simply because it was the one that started it, people will unfairly disregard it because it got lost amidst its sea of imitations even though it paved the way for all those imitators. That is, a work retroactively becomes a Cliché Storm. >There may be good reason for this. Whoever is first to do something isn't likely to be the best at it, simply because everyone that comes after is building on their predecessors' work. >Named after Seinfeld, which many people won't watch any more because everything about it has been copied. note Most likely will result in Fan Haters and accusations of Rule Abiding Rebels. This can also occur in countries that get the shows years after they originally come out. >When someone attempts to make "Seinfeld" funny again in this time and age, see Reconstruction. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Reconstruction https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Reconstruction Not to be confused with the act of thinking an old in-joke referencing a sub-culture was originally from that show (yada, yada, yada), which is called the "Seinfeld Effect" or the modern internet-meme related "Family Guy Effect". https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/seinfeld-effect https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/seinfeld-effect https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/family-guy-effect https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/family-guy-effect

Waterluvian 4y ago
Thanks for sharing. I had no idea there was a term for it. As I reflect, I can see that with a lot of shows I thought were amazing. Humour evolves in such a fascinating way that a killer joke, even if it’s not context specific to an era, can stop being funny. I showed my wife a bunch of flash videos from my teenage years. She just stared and I slowly came to realize: they’re just not funny anymore. I remember thinking they were such a novel concept and the humour was trying something very new. But I guess what was new and exciting then is so socially normal now that it doesn’t trigger the funny response.